Shakespeare in Venice: Exploring the City with Shylock and Othello

"The book was built on a series of very serious questions about the possible historic presence of the Bard in the streets of Venice, seeking signs of his passage throughout the city. The conclusion is that, in the end, it is not that important to know for certain whether or not Shakespeare ever set foot in the territory of the Serenissima, because the image of Renaissance Venice provided by his works demonstrates such vitality that it still remains possible to discover the atmospheres and places in which his masterpieces are set. We have selected forty elements that are directly linked to the English playwright, all of them drawn from quotations of his works: places, people, events, situations, from San Marco to Rialto, the only place explicitly mentioned in Shakespeare's Venetian works, from the Carnival to the ghetto, which was in fact instituted in the early sixteenth century, from the figures of the most famous condottieri to the doges and scholars of the period - all contribute to helping us see Venice through the eyes of Shylock and the Moor. A sort of "Elizabethan" Venice, unknown to most." Alberto Toso Fei's website